Visualize a work environment (maybe your work environment?) full of pressing deadlines and an endless stream of top priority items or crises where time for one-on-one performance related conversations repeatedly gets moved to the back burner. Add company expansion and competition between co-workers to the mix and it is not difficult to imagine why employees may not be taking time out from work tasks to voluntarily assist each other. According to a 2008 Harvard Business Review article – summarizing a 7 year study involving 30 professional service firms – increasing competition and “rapid growth” have contributed to the demise of mentoring in these firms (DeLong, Gabarro and Lees, 2008).

This research has implications for informal learning within an organization and for regular performance related conversations. Undoubtedly, not all of our learning at work stems from a conversation with a direct manager. Mentoring relationships can be formal or informal, and can exist between peers or stretch across levels within an organization. If the climate within an organization stifles valuable learning conversations, then we all lose. As Christopher Rice; CEO of Blessing White writes in Is Your Retention Strategy Strong Enough for a Weak Economy? “most employees who are contemplating a move are doing so to pursue personal growth or advancement in their careers.”

If we are not providing the growth opportunities necessary to retain valuable employees, could a return to formal mentoring be part of the solution or is a less common approach needed? HCL Technologies in India encourages feedback and honest communication in a novel way. They implemented a system under which employees rate the performance of the CEO and managers publically on the company intranet (McGregor, 2007). This effort has contributed to a drop of 3.2% in the company attrition rate over three quarters.

Do you agree that increasing competition is crushing the development of trusting advisory relationships? Could a return to formal mentoring be beneficial?

References:
-DeLong, Thomas J., John J. Gabarro and Robert J. Lees. “Why Mentoring Matters in a Hypercompetitive World.” Harvard Business Review, January 2008, pp. 115-119.
-McGregor, Jena. “The Employee is Always Right; At India’s HCL Technologies, workers get to grad the boss, and everybody can see the ratings.” Business Week, November 2007, p. 80.
-Rice, Christopher “Is Your Retention Strategy Strong Enough for a Weak Economy.” Blessing White eNews [www.blessingwhite.com]. January, 2008.